During endovascular interventions catheters are inserted into a patient's vascular system to reach a target or treatment area for instance to deploy a stent. This is generally done under fluoroscopic control. As the vasculature is poorly visible, contrast agent may be injected using specific catheters. During an angiography, the contrast agent propagates through the vascular system with the blood flow. The frame where the target anatomy is the most visible is generally selected and displayed afterwards next to a live image.
However, in some interventions such as Endovascular Aneurysm Repair (EVAR), the region where the contrast agent is administered to the object of examination is relatively far from a target region.
What is more, during a single intervention session there may be several anatomical regions of interest that are spread far apart and need be screened during a single angiographic session. For instance, EVAR interventions cover a wide area ranging from the renal arteries to the femoral arteries. In these situations, a selection of several frames would be required to cover all the target regions.
A method for selecting frames of angiograms using a “live” tip position of a catheter is described in applicant's WO2010/0063389.